Meet the Goggleboxers

Posted on 12/09/2013

12 min read

Gogglebox starts on the 26th of September for a 13 week run. Commenting from 16 sofas in the second series, the cast includes these returning households:

Steph (47) and Dom (49) own and run a high-end bed & breakfast business from their Grade 1 listed house in Kent, which has hosted royalty and celebrities alike. Steph previously worked for NATO and the European Commission and Dom used to run the family steel business. Most evenings, they crack open the drinks cabinet and settle down to watch their favourite TV shows with Gigi their beloved sausage dog. They met on a blind date and have been married for 16 years.

Series 1 – watching Bank of Dave

Steph: ‘I’m just being the Devil’s Advocado here.’

Series 1 – watching Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway

Dom: ‘Nice up panty shot there’

Steph: ‘Oh I missed that’

Dom: ‘I didn’t!’

Sandra Martin (51), AKA Queen B, has lived in Brixton, South London for the last 46 years. She has four children and two grandchildren and looks after her youngest grandchild Shiloh five days a week. She and best friend Sandy Channer (47), a native Brixtonite, have been friends for over 40 years. They are both unemployed and spend their evenings together watching anything from the soaps to sitcoms.

Series 1 – watching Keeping Britain Alive: The NHS in a Day

Sandra: ‘When my mum, when my mum erm, was in hospital getting ready to die, I ate all her dinners… She gave them to me. She weren’t hungry.’

Series 1 – watching A Very British Wedding

Sandra: ‘When I got married to my last husband, we never had nothing.’

Sandy: ‘You’ve never had a cake or like..?’

Sandra: ‘Nope, straight down KFC.’

Leon (78) and June (75) have been married for 53 years and both are retired teachers. Leon taught History and June was an English teacher. As well as enjoying watching telly, Leon is a keen Bridge player, while June enjoys swimming. They have two daughters, ‘our Helen’ and ‘our Julie,’ and three grandchildren.

Leon: ‘He’s toadying to the Conservative right wing. He’s a weak man with his woman’s mouth. Oh he’s a horror’.

Nikki (40) and husband Jonathan (46) have lived in North London for 16 years. Jonathan previously owned a kosher restaurant but for the last four-and-half years has worked as an executive chauffeur. Nikki works as a nursery teacher. This Jewish couple have two children – Amy (13) and Josh (15), and describe their family life as ‘never dull and certainly never quiet.’

Series 1 – watching Top Gear (an Africa Special)

Jonathan: ‘Must cost them a fortune.’

Nikki: ‘I know!’

Jonathan: ‘Dunno how the BBC can er, justify it.’

Chris Sreed (37) and Stephen Webb (42) are both hairdressers and first met nine years ago. Stephen spends a lot of his time at Chris’ bungalow in Brighton, where they love nothing more than a takeaway and a relaxing night in front of the telly. Chris shares his home and often the sofa with his beloved cat ‘Ginge’.

Chris: ‘She’s been cutting her own fringe, I reckon. That’s a bowl on the head job wasn’t it?’

Stephen: ‘That’s his dad. They’re all the same aren’t they; they’re like little clones of each other’.

The Allen sisters all live with their parents in their childhood home in Essex. Along with siblings Gemma (29) and Charlotte (28), Louise (32) runs her own fashion business. The girls love the big reality shows, particularly Big Brother and I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here.

Series 1 – watching Supersize Vs. Superskinny

Gemma: ‘Watching fat people makes me want to eat chocolate, is that wrong?’

Retired hotelier Andrew (53) and his wife Carolyne (52) have been married for 27 years. They live together with son Louis (16), who is has just completed his GSCEs. The family also have two daughters; Alex (22), who is studying for a Masters in Computer science and Katie (24) who has recently returned from six months travelling in Australia. They also have a son Pascal (21), studying Neuroscience at Aberdeen. When the whole family are home, there is usually a lively debate about what’s on telly.

Series 1 – watching Boris Johnson: The Irresistible Rise

Carolyne: ‘He’s a toff, he is a fool and he is a buffoon and it’s obviously a fake, but I still like him’.

Louis: ‘Yeah but it’s his thing. He is the playful idiot with the shaggy hair’.

Carolyne: ‘Yeah but you have to beware the fool, because in all Shakespeare plays, the fool is actually the clever one’.

Father of the family, Sid (68) (real name Mohammed) is an engineer by trade, but now works in the Healthcare industry. He was born in Pakistan and moved to Derby when he was 16. He married 36 years ago in an arranged marriage and he and his wife have two daughters and three sons. He always watches television with his boys and his favourite televisionshow is Coronation Street. Umar (35) the eldest is the only single one left of his sons and works as a Microbiologist in a hospital. Baasit (30) has been married for nearly a year and is an IT teacher. Raza (34) is an Estate Agent.

Series 1 – watching Crufts 2013

Umar: ‘The British do love their dogs, like no other nation. I mean the Chinese like dogs as well but not in the same way.’

Baasit: ‘For different reasons.’

Raza: ‘Yeah what’s Crufts like in China? It’s a cookery programme!’

Series 1 – watching Boris Johnson: The Irresistible Rise

Baasit: ‘You used to think I’d be Prime Minister didn’t you Dad?’

Sid: ‘I still do’

Raza: ‘What did you think I’d be Dad?’

Sid: ‘Let’s not go there.’

Series 1 – watching David Cameron talking about immigration on BBC News

Raza: ‘How would you sneak in?’

Baasit: ‘I’d swim the Channel, I’d like get to France and like swim the Channel and then creep in.’

Raza: ‘How did we sneak in last time, Dad?’

(All laugh)

Michael Wilcock (32) is a service engineer who fixes cash machines. Originally from Liverpool, he now lives in Wigan. Body conscious Michael is a gym fanatic and really likes to keep his abs in shape for the ladies. Steven Dermott (25) works as a labourer for his father’s building firm in Liverpool. At the weekend, the boys enjoy watching telly together and their favourite show is Top Gear.